Previous machines for winding saddle-shaped coils have been of the lathe type wherein a mould of suitable shape was rotated about an axis while the wires making up the coil were fed thereinto. In such machines the coils produced were subject to quality control problems caused by varying electrical characteristics. It has been determined that these varying electrical characteristics are caused by the wire being stretched and reduced in diameter as it is drawn around corners of the mould.
Further, such machines were difficult to control and difficult to program for different coil designs.